Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Another team having a good day on Friday were Ferrari, with Carlos Sainz fourth quickest in the second session. The team have set themselves the target of improving on their dire 2020 and compete for third in the constructors’ championship. Charles Leclerc, fifth fastest in the first session, said he did produce a decent lap in the second session, in which he was down in 12th. But he said the auguries were good from the car: “Positive day. We maybe didn’t expect to be as positive. P2 I was struggling with the car a little bit and didn’t manage to finish the lap I wanted to.

“We can feel the improvements that have been made since last year. It is very tight and qualifying is going to be very tight but it’s exciting. This is what we like as drivers to try to make the difference, but I still expect Mercedes and Red Bull to be in front quite a bit.”

By contrast, Aston Martin and, in particular, Alpine were not in a happy place, their times on short and long runs suggesting that the two teams that have changed their names over the winter are at the back of the midfield pace.

Fernando Alonso, though, was positive. “It felt amazing to be back,” he said. “You feel different than testing - racing is racing and I enjoyed so much the two sessions. I’m still working with the team fine-tuning the set-up. We have something in the pocket because the balance is different from the test. We have good ideas [for Saturday] and I am confident we can do a good job.”

Jim de Costabadie: Ferrari have been very quiet but not far off the pace. We will soon see!

David M: Lewis to nick pole from Verstappen, Bottas and Norris to follow.

Session three is under way. We have just the hour (as we do in all practice sessions this season) and away we go.

Yuki Tsunoda, who impressed on Friday, is the first man to hit the track.

We have online commentary so press the play button at the top to listen along to our commentary team of Jack Nicholls, Jolyon Palmer, Jennie Gow and Andrew Benson.

These are the tyres that Pirelli have supplied for this weekend.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

The stand-out performers on Friday were McLaren, with Lando Norris third in the first session and second in the second. But all was not quite as it seemed. The McLaren is a good car, certainly, and could well emerge as the class act of the midfield, but the team do not expect to be able to mix it with Red Bull and Mercedes. The secret of their times? The data traces showed that they had their engine turned up more than the big two - and Norris more or less admitted it.

“We look quick but it is fairly obvious what’s going to happen [on Saturday],” he said. “It’s gonna be the usual front four cars ahead of us. Behind there, it seems very close, even if we’re a bit ahead. I think it’s because we just showed a bit more and we’ll go and be a little bit more where we should be.”

Neither Norris nor team-mate Daniel Ricciardo were especially happy with the behaviour of the car, but there is no doubt that this was a strong start to the season.

Scott Allen-Johns: It's been a good while since I've been this pumped for a season, the field does seem to be much closer than in recent years! My hot take, there will be a Mercedes on the front row, it won't be Lewis. Also think Lando will make the second row.

Karen Waddy: Checo underwhelmed me yesterday and needs to pull his finger out if he's to put Max under any pressure this season.

A quick reminder of the chosen 20 that will be on the grid in 2021.

• Alfa Romeo: Antonio Giovinazzi (Italy) and Kimi Raikkonen (Finland)
• Alpha Tauri: Pierre Gasly (France) and Yuki Tsunoda (Japan)
• Alpine (formerly Renault): Fernando Alonso (Spain) and Esteban Ocon (France)
• Aston Martin (formerly Racing Point): Lance Stroll (Canada) and Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
• Ferrari: Charles Leclerc (Monaco) and Carlos Sainz (Spain)
• Haas: Nikita Mazepin (Russia) and Mick Schumacher (Germany)
• McLaren: Lando Norris (Great Britain) and Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)
• Mercedes: Valtteri Bottas (Finland) and Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain)
• Red Bull: Sergio Perez (Mexico) and Max Verstappen (Netherlands)
• Williams: Nicholas Latifi (Canada) and George Russell (Great Britain)

Out from last year: Alexander Albon (Red Bull), Romain Grosjean (Haas), Daniil Kvyat (Alpha Tauri), Kevin Magnussen (Haas).

Time to shine, says Max, which is what he did yesterday.

We're asking you to tell us which is the best looking F1 car on the grid this season. Yesterday saw Alpha Tauri, Haas, Alpine and Ferrari be eliminated so the next match up is Red Bull v Alfa Romeo.

If Red Bull is your pick then hit the 'thumbs up' but if you prefer the Alfa Romeo then select 'thumbs down'.

You have an hour and however it stands at 12:45 GMT will be the result.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Round 1

• Williams (10) beat Alpha Tauri (7) (2,075-1,119)
• Alfa Romeo (8) beat Haas (9) (3,664-417)

Quarter-finals

1. Aston Martin (4) beat Alpine (5) (2,758-2,318)
2. McLaren (3) beat Ferrari (6) (5,005-1,121)
3. Saturday, 11:45 GMT: Red Bull (2) v Alfa Romeo
4. Saturday, 12:45 GMT: Mercedes (1) v Williams

Semi-finals

• Saturday, 13:45 GMT: Aston Martin v winner of quarter-final 3
• Saturday, 14:45 GMT: McLaren v quarter-final 4

Final

• Sunday, 14:45 BST.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Max Verstappen was riding high in his Red Bull on the first day of the new Formula 1 season in Bahrain on Friday. Fastest in both practice sessions, the Dutchman was also quickest on the race-simulation runs at the end of rather day - albeit by just 0.04 seconds on average. In that sense, the day confirmed the impressions of testing - that Red Bull have a slight advantage over Mercedes.

But Saturday is another day, and the conditions are due to change. The wind direction is going to change almost by 180 degrees by the time qualifying starts, and that could have an effect on car behaviour. Will Verstappen still be on top by this evening?

Tweet us using #bbcf1 to get your name in this page. Tell us your thoughts on all the action so far.

Are Red Bull now the favourites for pole, or will Mercedes pull it out of the bag as they normally do?

Are McLaren and Ferrari genuine front-row contenders?

What did you make of Alonso's return, Vettel's first outing in the Aston Martin and the performance of the three newcomers?

The top 15 all within a second of each other and Kimi Raikkonen probably would have been too had he not missed a large part of the session after crashing into a wall.

Image source, F1

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Red Bull's Max Verstappen topped both Friday practice sessions at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

He headed McLaren's Lando Norris in the second session, with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton third and Valtteri Bottas fifth, split by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.

Verstappen was first and Bottas second in the first session with Norris third.

The field appeared very competitive - less than a second separated Verstappen in first place from Fernando Alonso's Alpine in a disappointing 15th.

It was a mixed day for all the movers up and down the grid.

Sainz impressed in the Ferrari, with his team-mate Charles Leclerc not stringing together a strong lap and ending up 12th, 0.5secs off the Spaniard.

And Alpha Tauri rookie Yuki Tsunoda impressed in going seventh fastest, two places ahead of experienced team-mate Pierre Gasly.

But Daniel Ricciardo was four places down on his new McLaren team-mate Norris; Sergio Perez was 10th in the second Red Bull; Sebastian Vettel was 14th fastest, six places behind Aston Martin partner Lance Stroll.

And Alonso, returning to F1 after two years away, was four places and 0.169secs down on Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon.

A great session for Lando Norris in third, but the day would get even better for him...

Image source, F1

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Reuters

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fastest in the first practice session of the new season at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

He was 0.298 seconds quicker than Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas, with Lando Norris an impressive third for McLaren ahead of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fifth, ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

Sebastian Vettel was 12th for his new team Aston Martin while Fernando Alonso, back in F1 after two years away, was only 16th in the Alpine.

The session is not necessarily representative of true competitiveness, not only because the teams could have been running their cars in different specifications, but also because conditions in the sunny afternoon are different from in qualifying and race, which take place after dark.

Nevertheless, the session did seem to continue the impression of pre-season testing that Red Bull had a slight edge on pace over Mercedes.

Hello and welcome along to BBC Sport's coverage of third practice and then qualifying for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

We have third practice at 12:00 GMT followed by qualifying at 15:00 GMT and as always we will have live radio commentary in this page of both bits.

If you did not join us yesterday, let's have a quick look back at what happened.

It was a perfect start to the season for Max Verstappen as he was the quickest man in both sessions on Friday so he can build on that and secure pole position later on today?

With 15 cars all within a second of each other in the second session it could be a thrilling and dramatic day of action.

Image source, Getty Images